Monday, November 29, 2004

Abortion is the new prohibition. Anti-abortion zealots hold extremeist positions on "immorality" that rival the fierce determination of US prohibitionists from 1900 to 1920.

Conservative Protestants Jerry Falwell and James Dobson are the new Carry Nations. The Moral Majority Coalition and Focus on the Family are the new Woman's Christian Temperance Unions. Moderates, Independents and Democrats, take note.....the abortion issue will not go away. The religious right has flatly declared abortion a "non-negotiable issue." Abortion will not be negotiated away, and it will not be given a lower priority than any other issue. The line has been drawn in the proverbial sand. And the Republican majority has shown that it's perfectly content to throw the baby out with the bathwater over this issue.

The horribly, and possibly permanently, crippling trade deficit and runaway non-budget be damned. The disgraceful, deadly Iraq War be damned. The 45 million Americans without healthcare insurance be damned. The underfunded, failing US educational system be damned. The shameless dishonesty and corruptness of this administration be damned.The rampant and willful desecration of the environment for more and greater profits be damned.
It's no longer about the economy, stupid. It's about abortion.However................Democrats need to get real about abortion. Abortion is all and only about terminating life, just like drinking is about...well, getting drunk. Carry Nation and her Woman's Christian Temperance Union were never wrong about alcohol. She was incredibly overzealous, but not wrong. Democrats, brace yourself for my next statement. Jerry Falwell and James Dobson are also not wrong about abortion....and in our hearts, we all know it. They're not wrong....just ridiculously overzealous. (Sure, they're big-time hypocrites about being "pro-life", but that doesn't make them wrong about abortion.) The difference between temperance and abortion prohibitionists is that drinking is not illegal. Drunk driving, of course, is illegal, as it could harm another person. Likewise, reckless sexual behavior is not illegal, but under current US laws, killing of human life is illegal. That is, except for Roe v. Wade, which made all abortions legal, without question or exception. All pregnancies may legally be terminated at any time prior to birth for no valid reason whatsoever. Period. Pastors and priests rightfully rage against the US "holocaust of babies" since the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. Experts estimate that an astounding 40 million abortions have been performed in the US since the Roe v. Wade became law. Most believers of all religions are appalled, and are determined to end the abuse of abortion.

The pendulum for abortion has rested at the extreme permissive end of the spectrum for 30 years. It's inevitable that the pendulum will, and should, swing back to a more balanced interpretation of a woman's private right to have an abortion, within the existing framework of our country's laws regarding termination of God-given life. The danger is that right-wing radicals and the self-appointed morals police have 30 years of pent-up frustration over this volatile issue, and they can be a vindictive bunch. In 1895, a group of conservative Protestant women founded the Woman's Christian Temperance Union to combat extreme excesses of alcohol consumption of their times. Alcohol-related deaths were at an all-time high, partly due to the introduction of automobiles. Beer, wine and hard liquor, not human behavior, was blamed by reformers for poverty, health problems, work productivity and even the neglect of family by husbands. Their movement to control private, personal behavior in a free democracy caught the imagination of the American pulpit and public. The 18th amendment to the Constitution became law in 1920. It was repealed in 1933, the only amendment ever considered to be a grave error.Democrats, the same will occur with abortion if compromises aren't soon made to limit abortions permitted under Roe v. Wade. Abortion under all circumstances will be completely banned if compromises are not now...right now... made to greatly modify Roe v. Wade. Yes, there are rare, legitimate reasons for early stage abortions. Rape, incest, the life of the mother is in peril, very extraordinary disabilities of the unborn baby. But abortion is commonly now used as after-the-fact birth control. Most US abortions are performed to mitigate irresponsible behavior and dispose of inconvenient children.

The Democratic Party presently celebrates abortion as if it's a life-affirming act. It's unimaginable political insanity to believe such a negative message will attract middle class, church-going voters.

Reality is that abortion is a grim medical procecure designed to efficiently end the life of a child. Most compassionate, common sense people believe that there are, indeed, limited occasions when abortion is the appropriate course of action....a sad and necessary evil. But routine, freely available abortions are hardly a reason for celebration or form the basis of a successful national political platform.

The next Democratic candidate who is duly elected to the US Presidency will not embrace a wholehearted pro-choice stance. He/she will openly acknowledge that abortion should only be permitted in narrowly proscribed circumstances.

Until such time as the Democratic Party, and its national political candidates, publicly recognize abortion as a tragedy and not as a joyous personal right, Republicans will continue to occupy the White House and to control both Houses of Congress.

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Rick Warren, evangelical pastor and author of the mega bestseller "The Purpose Driven Life," was on Larry King's show last night. Prior to the presidential election, he cannily avoided officially endorsing a candidate, but repeatedly used James Dobson-speak to clearly communicate his support for the Bush/Cheney ultra-right worldview. (He famously told Bill Moyers during a PBS panel confab that voters care more about "personal moral issues" than merely "social issues.")Since Nov 2, politically sensitive and closet-moderate evangelical pastors have subtly shifted a bit to the left of their pre-election deification of all things espoused by Dobson, Jerry Falwell and ilk. Witness a few comments last night by savvy chameleon Warren....

"There is a big difference between the religious right and evangelicals.""The message of the evangelical is grace, not judgment.""Evangelicals believe in only three things. 1. The Bible is the Word of God. 2. Jesus Christ is the son of God. He was crucified and died for our sins. He rose from the grave, and ascended to heaven to with His Father. 3. Our job is to spread the Good News. That's it. Nothing more.""There's a lot of good in other religions. A lot to be learned from them. The only difference is belief in Jesus Christ." (Imagine the frustration of Christian apologetics professors at that glib statement.)George Bush has not-so-subtly moved to the left from his pre-election hard-right stances. (See my post of Nov 17.) Rick Warren, stated admirer of politically-neutral Billy Graham and business world guru Peter Drucker as seminal figures in his ministry, has likewise been newly converted to the ranks of evangelical moderates. Or perhaps they were always evangelical moderates. They just closeted it at election time. Perhaps all that arrogant, Pharasitic blather about only far-right voters having "values" was just so much.....clever election-year babble crafted to garner votes. One can only hope. And pray.

Monday, November 22, 2004

Billy Graham, the ailing 86 year old Christian evangelist, respected as the father of modern-day American evangelism, has scrupulously avoided political labels for fifty years of ministry. He sought to rise above the fray, as God would, so that all could hear his words of universal truth.Evangelicals of all leanings, from Rick Warren, Max Lucado and right-wing radicals James Dobson and Jerry Falwell to Jim Wallis of Sojourners regard him as the seminal figure of their ministries.
Rev. Graham says he may have preached his last sermon to a stadium congregation yesterday. He spoke of salvation and love to 300,000 of the faithful at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena from Thursday through Sunday. He probably has proclaimed his last altar call. He did a lengthy interview this weekend with NBC's Brian Williams. A few moments ago, The Today Show ran a brief, provocative excerpt in which Mr. Williams asked for Rev. Graham's views on the Presidential election of 2004.Eyes shining, the revered Rev. Graham firmly fired eight words that will reverberate around Christian evangelical circles for years to come....."I have been a Democrat all my life..."

Friday, November 19, 2004

The Associated Press reporting from Baghdad, about an hour ago....."Iraqi forces backed by American soldiers raided one of the country's most important Sunni mosques as worshippers were leaving after Friday prayers---part of a crackdown on clerics opposed to the US-led attack on Fallujah. Witnesses said at least three people were killed and 40 arrested.Congregants at the Abu Hanifa mosque said they heard explosions inside the building, apparently from stun grenades. Later, a reporter saw a computer and books, including a Quran, scattered on the floor of the imam's office near overturned furniture. US soliders were seen inside the mosque compound.

The mosque, built around the tomb of the founder of the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence, has stood for 1250 years....It is the most important Sunni mosque in Baghdad, and a site of pilgrimage for Muslims worldwide."

The question comes to mind....aren't we fighting for a free democracy in Iraq? Doesn't a free democracy include the freedom to worship as one chooses? If George Bush's true but unstated goal in Iraq is to stamp out Islam, and convert Iraq into a Christian state, is violence, destruction and killing an effective way to attract followers to Christianity?

Thursday, November 18, 2004

An excerpt from Baghdad Burning, a blog written by an Iraqi woman who lives in Baghdad with her family. I urge everyone to read this blog regularly (link below at left), so you''ll grasp what it feels like to walk in the shoes of everyday, law-abiding Iraqi families during these turbulent times. So you'll understand how the US's violent occupation of Iraq feels to Iraqi citizens.After viewing the video of an American Marine killing a defenseless, wounded Iraqi lying among the dead bodies in a sacred mosque....."We sat, horrified, stunned with the horror of the scene that unfolded in front of our eyes....The room was silent at the end of the scene, with only the voice of the news anchor and the sobs of my aunt. My little cousin flinched and dropped her spoon, face frozen with shock, eyes wide with disbelief, glued to the television screen 'Is he dead? Did they kill him?' ....'What was I supposed to tell them?' he asked, an hour later, after we had sent his two daughters to help their grandmother in the kitchen. 'What am I supposed to tell them---Yes, darling, they killed him. the Americans killed a wounded man; they are occupying our country, killing people and we are sitting here eating, drinking and watching TV?' He shook his head, 'How much more do they have to see? What is left for them to see?'

They killed a wounded man. It's hard to believe. They killed a man who was completely helpless---like he was some sort of diseased animal. I had read the articles and heard the stories of this happening before---wounded civilians being thrown on the side of the road or shot in cold blood---but to see it happening on television is something else. It makes me crazy with anger.
And what will happen now? A criminal investigtion against a single Marine who did the shooting? Just like they did with the Abu Gharaib atrocities? A couple of people will be blamed and the whole thing will be buried under the rubble of idiotic military psychologists, defense analysts, Pentagon officials and spokespeople and it will be forgotten. In the end, all anyone will remember is that a single Marine shot and killed a single Iraqi 'insurgent' and it won't matter anymore.It's typical American technique--every single atrocity is lost and covered up by blaming a specific person and getting it over with. What people don't understand is that the whole military is infested with these psychopaths. In this last year, we've seen murderers, torturers and xenophobes running around in tanks and guns. I don't care what it does...I don't care if it's the tension, the fear, the 'enemy"....it's murder. We are occupied by murderers. We're under the same pressure, as Iraqis, except that we aren't trained for this situation, and yet we're all expected to be benevolent and understanding and, above all, grateful....I don't know what to say anymore...they aren't humans and they don't deserve any compassion. The people slaughtering Iraqis, torturing in prisons and shooting wounded prisoners are 'American Heroes.' Congratulations, you must be so proud of yourselves today."

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

The worst thing that happened to conservative evangelicals who voted for George Bush was that their candidate won the election. Mr. Bush will let them down. That's already obvious, only two weeks after the election.

Dr. James Dobson, the influential, once moderate but now ultra-right founder of Focus on the Family, groused last week on ABC's This Week program, "I'm sure he will fail us. He doesn't dance to our tune."

Dr. Dobson is bitter that he was a campaign insider.....he was part of regular pre-election conference calls with Karl Rove, Chuck Colson and Ralph Reed....but his radical ideas for political appointments and patronage are now being ignored by President Bush. Bush's appointment of Texas crony Alberto Gonzales to Attorney General to replace uber-conservative John Ashcroft has horrified evangelicals. The attorney general is a likely candidate for nomination to the Supreme Court, and Gonzales' views on Roe v. Wade are murky. Tony Perkins, president of The Family Research Council, a offshoot of Dobson's organization, noted that Gonzales is not solidly opposed to abortion. As a Texas judge, he took a stand against requiring teenagers seeking abortions to notify their parents. Word has it that Senator Arlen Specterof Pennsylvaniawill, indeed, be granted the coveted chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, despite far-right evangelical objections. The ever-collegial Orrin Hatch, long-time senator from Utah , has given Specter his seal of approval for the position. Said Dobson of Senator Specter, "He is a big-time problem for us," and that his quest to be committee chair "must be derailed."The White House believes it has punished Senator Specter sufficiently for his politically foolish remarks about Roe v. Wade, so that evangelical Bush supporters should be satisfied. What the President forgets is that campaign talk is cheap, and that millions who voted for him are now watching his actions, not hanging on his words. Dr. Laura Schlessinger, radio talk show shrink and rabid Bush supporter, has on her website a petition for her listeners to sign, to force the President to stop a bill funding intrusive mental health screening of all school children. Three weeks ago, she believed he was the elective answer to common civility and moral living. She now finds at least his health care policies for children to be "dangerous."

Writes Dr. Laura," This is a huge red flag, and it is our responsibility to protect our children. Even officials of the respected Assn of American Physicians and Surgeons decry what they see as a dangerous scheme that will heap even more coercive pressure on parents to medicate childen with potentially dangerous side effects."

Dr. Laura is surprised that George Bush would place profits and supporting his corporate pharmaceutical buddies over public school children? Huh? So she ignored all his actions, both as Texas governor and President, and instead, got sucked in by campaign rhetoric? She overlooked his administration's paranoid, often unconstitutional intrusions into the very details our personal lives?

Generations of Bush family politicians, including George W., have always been social issue moderates, political pragmatists (Do and say what it takes....), conservative war hawks with stated disgust for the United Nations, and above all, Dow Jones enthusiasts. These are not ideologues, except for business profits. They prize loyalty and money over ideas and values. They always have, and they always will.

I still believe Bush will nominate a couple anti-abortion judges to the Supreme Court, but that doesn't mean they'll pass the nomination process. His recent cabinet appointments have all been informally vetted by Congress before he makes public announcements. In fact, George W. Bush has never acted more cooperatively with Congress than in the last few weeks. No less than Senator Ted Kennedy today praised one of Bush's recent nominations. Bush may nominate an anti-abortion candidate or two, knowing they might never be appointed. Thus, he would appear to evangelicals to have tried on their behalf, but lost.....which would be a political win/win for Bush. Rather like the phony, overheated gay marriage chatter of campaign 2004.

The Presidential election of 2004 will be a miserable victory for evangelicals. They coalesced in record numbers to vote for a man who didn't mean what he said and didn't deserve their vote. They voted for a lame duck who no longer needs their votes.

The heartbreaker is that such a vote of solidarity was unprecedented. It's unlikely to happen again anytime soon. The majority of evangelicals who voted for Bush are decent people who simply want a better, more moral world for their children and grandchildren. They came together to do good, in their minds.

Sadly, they wasted their votes on an undeserving, ungrateful candidate. And possibly their momentum as a political force.

Saturday, November 13, 2004

CNN's airwaves were full of lawyers and legal analysts stunned at the guilty verdict for Scott Peterson. "But what about the evidence?" they decried in unison. "The verdict was about compassion, not evidence," said Dr. Henry Lee, famed forensic pathologist. Apparently longing for another OJ-type verdict, the architects of our present legal system mess of justice-with-a-pricetag were bemoaning that the jury refused to linger over minutiae of a single hair strand, he said-she said scenarios, and estimated timeframes for Laci's wandering dog. The original jury foreman, a lawyer and doctor, took 19 notebooks of notes (think book deal), and then attempted to disallow the jury from voting until he scoured all 19 notebooks with them. The jury wanted and felt qualified to vote without wasting weeks on mind-numbing detail. The foreman left the jury, claiming that he was threatened with violence. The confrontation between between jury and foreman must have been both contentious and hilarious. It also neatly symbolizes the frustration of everyday Americans with our legal system.

Scott Peterson is an adulterer and psychotic liar who admitted fishing at the exact spot where his mutilated wife and son swept up on the shores of a San Francisco-area bay. He was arrested near the Mexican border with $10,000, his brother's driver's license and dyed blond hair. His behavior following Laci's disappearance was strange and hardly grieving, and smacked clearly and consistently of a man who killed his pregnant wife. He had the motive, he had the time and place, he had the frame of mind.

After 5 months of testimony, the jury knew he was guilty. The jury could see the whole forest, not merely individual trees. Meanwhile, the foreman wanted to spend scads of time examining the leaves, bark and twigs of each proverbial tree. And not allow the jury to take an initial vote before being bored to death while sequestered from their families. Our present legal system is big business. It behooves well-heeled attorneys to take on impossible cases, stretch them out over months, and cleverly twist reality into a perversion of justice. (Remember....OJ is a free man.) Celebrity attorneys are extremely wealthy people. Mark Geragos made $1 million for defending Scott Peterson. $1 million for twisting facts ad naseum, questioning the crediblity of labs and authorities, and offering bogus alternative theories.Yes, it's vital that all defendants receive a fair hearing, and that all the relevant evidence be examined. It's essential to a fair and just society that justice be served, both for innocent and guilty defendants. The jury was correct in clinging to its common sense, and not drowning in a cesspool of corrupting, irrelevant legalistic detail and silliness. Scott obviously murdered Laci and Conner. People outside the San Mateo courthouse cheered not for macabre reasons, but because justice had been served.....in spite of the legal system, not because of it. OJ may walk the streets a free man, but Scott Peterson will not. The crowd was cheering out of relief that justice had been served....that the system worked. That the common sense of a jury of everyday Americans prevailed over our flawed legal system.

On CNN.com this morning, 200,000 respondents voted on the poll-of-the-day question....."Do you agree with the jury's verdict in the Scott Peterson case?" A whopping 84% voted yes.

CNN's own legal pundits and analysts would do well to ponder the meaning of that overwhelming vote. The jury was correct, and the American people agree with the jury. The jury system worked in the Scott Peterson case as it was intended by our forefathers.

Common sense prevailed over the justice-perverting legalisms and greedy goals of criminal and litigation attorneys.

We should all be cheering with those outside the San Mateo courthouse.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Two armored tanks, complete with gun turrets and fully-uniformed soldiers, were deployed last night to a peaceful anti-war protest in Westwood, near the UCLA campus. The tanks circled the block twice, the second time parking in the street, directly in front of the area where most protesters were gathered. Enraged, some people attempted to block the tanks (think Tiananmen Square), but police quickly cleared the street. Stunned citizens continued to protest the presence of the tanks, which drove off about ten minutes later. If like me, you just can't (or don't want to) believe it, see photos, a video and the story at MyDD.com and at DemWatch. Here's my question......when will the next Kent State-like government shooting of innocents occur, if this war-like mentality continues to exist toward peaceful expression of viewpoints? What happened to the civil liberties that our forefathers so gallantly fought for...freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, among them? Tanks and soldiers at an anti-protest protest? Is this Communism or democracy? I am outraged. You should be, too. One thing is guaranteed...this insanity will grow and expand, and slowly destroy our democratic way of life, until it's stopped dead in its tracks.

John Ashcroft, the US Attorney General, ultimate and supreme head of our country's justice system, wrote in his resignation letter on November 2, election day .... "The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved." Huh?Did I miss something? Some cataclysmic event? Perhaps a headline-grabbing peace pronouncement? Americans are secure and safe again?Didn't they.....But Bush and Cheney said....hmmmm.... but I remember their buzz words like it was only last week....security, danger, terror, fear, killing, security again. Dirty bombs, suicide bombers, mushroom clouds over American cities. Code orange. Alert alert alert. Are you safe? Are we safe? Do you feel safe?Wasn't there a recent election won because we aren't safe, and we need a guy who will be tough and keep us safe? So we elected the tough, mean-spirited guys? So they could protect us from the world and all the villains? Like our dads did when we were children? Did I miss something? Or maybe....just maybe. Glory day. Call my mother and shout hallelujah. Maybe I'm just waking up from a very bad dream. Because our leaders wouldn't lie to voters thatradically.....would they? Those words of terror and unfettered paranoia weren't all just so much fear-mongering campaign lingo....were they?

Monday, November 08, 2004

From a New York Times Op-Ed piece today by frequent contributor Bob Herbert...."I think a case can be made that ignorance played at least as big a role in the election's outcome as values. A recent survey by...University of Maryland found that nearly 70 percent of President Bush's supporters believe that the US has come up with 'clear evidence' that Saddam Hussein was working closely with Al Qaeda. A third of the president's supporters believe weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. And more than a third believe that a substantial majority of world opinion supported the US-led invasion of Iraq.This is scary. How do you make a rational political pitch to people who have put that part of their brain on hold?"Indeed. At least now I understand why Bush and Cheney kept chanting mantra-like statements about Iraq that had been publicly and repeatedly proven to be untrue. A huge intentionally-uninformed and unread chunk of the electorate actually believed them, despite all evidence. Bush and Cheney reiterating the lies over and over reinforced their wishful fiction as reality in constituents' minds.

There were many times during the campaign when I thought Bush and Cheney were bumbling, unintelligible nutcases. Turns out they are brilliant political strategists. Ignorance was a powerful campaign tool. One question for the Christians who swallowed and supported these falsehoods and dangerous fantasies.....Whatever happened to your belief in John 8:32, "...the truth will set you free"?

Saturday, November 06, 2004

My soul aches that George W. Bush was reelected to lead and symbolize our nation for 4 more years. I love my country, and he does not. He loves money.

He is not a man of either truth or integrity. Perhaps the most authentic public moment by George Bush was filmed and subsequently included in the wildly-biased docudrama “Fahrenheit 9/11.”

He was dressed in formal white tie and tux, not farm-ready flannel shirt, worn jeans and scuffed Texas boots. He looked every bit the wealthy, Connecticut born, Yale and Harvard University graduate that is his birthright and biography. He stepped comfortably before the bejeweled fundraiser attendees, leaned forward to the microphone, and quipped with a smirk and minimal southern drawl, “Here you are….the haves and the have-mores.” Laughter of flattered recognition. “Some people call you rich. I call you my base.”

Bingo!

George W. Bush’s true constituency is not Christian evangelicals or Republicans, but the wealthy upper socio-economic class of corporate chieftains and ilk. And he knows and loves it. They are his leisure-time friends and his rich political donors. The rest is charade and political gimmickry.

True Republicans believe in small government, the smaller the better. True Republicans believe in limited, disciplined government spending and balanced budgets. He clearly believes in none of this. Historically traditional Republicans (think Pat Buchanan, Barry Goldwater) are isolationists in the world community, not crusaders out to remake other countries. His centerpiece philosophy, other than to remake our financial systems to favor the very wealthy, is to remold leadership of oil-rich countries. (North Korea, for example, is a far greater security risk to the US, but it has no oil reserves.)

As for his Christian credentials, he boasts that he prays and specifically claims to read an Oswald Chambers devotional. He has a heart for the tragedy of abortion, but is anything but a pro-lifer. As governor of Texas, he presided over more executions than any other public official in US history. And let’s be honest…killing in war seems to energize Mr. Bush. The macho power of war has been known to make him smile. (That sickens me to my core.)

As for gays, in a televised interview one week before the Nov 2 election, Mr. Bush unambiguously stated that while he is against gay marriage, he favors civil unions for gays and lesbians, and that they should be given full civil rights equal to married couples. So much for his fundamentalist homophobic horror of gays. All that public consternation about gays was simply and solely political pandering to evangelicals for votes. Gays are not, and have never been, an issue for him. They’re not a part of his country club world, so they don’t affect him much.

As for his Christian authenticity, he attends church at Easter and Christmas and for publicly-televised funerals and similar photo-op church services. (He’s never been to a memorial service for a soldier slain in Iraq or Afghanistan. Not even once.) He has never shown a scintilla of familiarity with the Bible. He would never pass the standards for a practicing Christian set forth by Billy Graham, Rick Warren or most local pastors.

There is no evidence that he has more than superficial, politically useful relationships with any pastors or Christian leaders. Whereas every other US President has humbly sought guidance from pastors, priests and spiritual leaders, George W. consults only his gut instinct and “his father above.” Just like Jesus. Just like the ultimate man of faith, not a mortal man of faith.

George W. Bush’s political base and his personal friends are the wealthy corporate elite…regardless of their religious beliefs, regardless of their political party affiliations, regardless of their sexuality.

He aims to remake the US social security and tax systems to benefit the rich. The middle class and poor be damned. He has absolutely no concern that a full 25% of our nation….45 million citizens…have no health care insurance. Yes, he will throw a bone to Christian evangelical voters, and nominate pro-life judges to the Supreme Court. And truth be known, that’s probably why they all voted for him. (Ah…the destructive self-indulgence of single-issue voting.)

Hs political skills are clever and wicked. He is tough to beat in a political race because he is 100% shameless. He lacks integrity and conscience. He ruthlessly plays to win at all costs.

If he spends American taxpayers’ funds at the same rate as he did in his first presidential term, there is no doubt that he will bankrupt our country. He plans to spend more, not less.

And he will still be rich. Richer, actually. And he will have grateful rich friends.

My very soul aches that George W. Bush was reelected to lead and symbolize our nation for 4 more years. I love my country, and he does not. He loves money. Given carte blanche to change our financial systems and further increase our deficit, he will surely destroy the United States as a world power.

Last week, Osama bin Laden clearly stated that he intends to bring down the United States through bankruptcy. If George Bush’s war and defense spending continues unchecked, and if he is allowed to revamp our financial structure to deprive the poor, sick and elderly of assistance, bin Laden will see fulfillment of his wish for a bankrupt and greatly diminished United States.

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Democracy worked yesterday. The American people spoke, and they spoke decisively. It was thrilling, regardless of individual personal views. It's essential to freedom that the people's will be honored and respected. More and more, I realize that it's not democracy that I object to. A democratic republic, as we have, enables its citizens to control the fate of their country. It's unfettered capitalism that drives the enormous greed and immorality in our country. not voting freedoms. -------------------------One great part about George Bush winning another term is that pro-life judges will be nominated to the Supreme Court and other judicial systems, and that Roe v. Wade can be overturned. Another is that momentum for gay marriage can be stopped in its tracks.-------------------------In the last few days before Nov 2, internet and blog rumor mills proclaimed Kerry the victor in the 2004 presidential elections. Their conclusion was based on supposedly solid statistics, projections and polling. The American people spoke, and the prognosticators were wrong. I got caught up in the euphoria, and was also wrong.Bush and Kerry camps reportedly both believed the rampant rumors until late night on Election Day. The President looked dejected and mildly defeated on Nov 1, but he never ever gave up. Never.He's an incredibly persistent fighter.
-------------------------The youth vote apparently never materialized. They stayed home. The Democratic Party was convinced that the youth vote would put Kerry over the top to victory. I've never believed that today's youth vote......ages 18 to 30....is liberal. Experience and observation tells me that today's youth leans conservative. -------------------------John Kerry is deeply European and intellectual in both style and taste. Americans in the midwest, heartland, southwest and southern United States have a horror of that persona and world. They want nothing to do with it. Deep down, we realized that, and they said it again yesterday....loud and clear!-------------------------Exit polls in several hotly contested "battleground" states revealed that 49% of voters support the war in Iraq. That may shock and appall me and millions of others....but it's a fact. I nightmare regularly about the impact of our country's bullying, war-mongering attitude. It's wrong and immoral, and it's anything but pro-life. I will never stop speaking out about the dark evil of war and violence, and of the necessity for peacemaking. Blessed are the peacemakers....

However.......the words of the pro-war Star-spangled Banner perfectly epitomize our nation, which was founded, shaped and fostered through conflict. Ours is not a nation founded on peace, nor has it ever experienced any signifcant period of peace. We have no history of great peacemaking. "Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.O say, does that star-spangled banner yet waveO'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"George Bush must particularly love our national anthem. I have to admit.....George W. Bush is thoroughly American, and so are his wars. And, like it or not, that appeals to lots of US citizens.

Monday, November 01, 2004

George W. Bush's presidency has been a painful, mean-spirited trainwreck of secrecy, greed, lies, intolerance and negligible planning, and the electorate is angry. The God of the Old Testament was notorious for using the worst of mankind to create a much-needed fresh start, both spiritually and materially.

The one-term Bush/Cheney administration will be remembered in history as the exceedingly low moral point that woke up 21st century Americans from political lethargy and corrupt vision. Think Herbert Hoover and the subsequent election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Think the people in Noah's time, before and after the flood.

Voting turnout tomorrow will be huge....the sleeping giant of American voters will awake from its slumber. John Kerry will be elected President.

The benefits of an angry electorate are many. Citizens become educated and engaged again in the issues. The issues then rightfully become their property, not just politician's problems. Citizens become participants, not merely spectator-victims. Citizens become active solution-finders. And informed solution-finders understand and accept results and democratic compromises. Solution-finders work together for common goals and answers.

When angry with leadership, Americans become reacquainted with their rich democratic history. They reread the wisdom of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Thomas Paine. They renew appreciation of their God-inspired Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Tomorrow, the American people will once again rise up and take control. Darkness will be gone, and God will have granted to the United States the opportunity and gift of a fresh start.

We all need to pray that Americans will constructively rechannel their anger from the last four disastrous years. We need to pray that Americans will unite behind President Kerry to effectively right the United States' course back into being the noble and free republic founded by our forefathers.